I dislike puzzles like this where the only real approach is to quiz the asker, where there's thousands of correct answers but only one is the one the quizzer wants; I prefer ones where all the information you require is given, but you just need to interpret it the right way. Not to say there's anything invalid about this sort, of course!

I really don't consider that a legitimate puzzle. It's more like a joke. "What did the barman say to the cowboy?" would have about as many possible answers as your original question. It's not really possible to solve without having heard it in the past, because it needs you to assume that a detail in the original question was not as it was said.

And the bicycle puzzle isn't impossible when you haven't heard it before. I hadn't heard it before and got it pretty quickly.

I think my key dislike for the type is the fact that it's not impossible to get it right, but it *is* impossible to eliminate valid wrong answers. It feels like you're not trying to find the right answer, just the answer the questioner wants you to give.

Geez, no one's posted anything on this in forever. How about this, a feeble attempt to revive this thread:

You are on a street corner. You are standing next to a banker who is going into the nearby barbershop, whose owner has a passion for photography. Next to the barbershop is a fire station. The fireman inside is cleaning his fire engine. Where are you?

Yup, if the earth span the other way, then we would have 367 days on our calendar

Explain? I don't see why this would be the case at all... and villagio doesn't explan why he thinks days would be "8 minutes shorter". Surely if all that changes is the spinning direction, each day would be just as long?

Explain? I don't see why this would be the case at all... and villagio doesn't explan why he thinks days would be "8 minutes shorter". Surely if all that changes is the spinning direction, each day would be just as long?

The length of a day is not just the time the earth takes for one rotation. It is the time it takes any one point on the earth to be facing the same direction from the sun, but the earth also takes one trip around the sun in a year, so this place isn't exactly one rotation around. If the earth took 4 days to orbit the sun, then in one day it only needs to spin 3/4 of its axis, to get from midday to midday. If it spun the other way, it would need to spin 1.25 times around its axis.

As it is, the earth is doing more work than just one spin for us to perceive a day, and if it spun the other way, it could get the job done sooner.

So Does anyone remember "The Fool’s Errand" well if you do and liked it, be happy for the long awaited Sequel http://thefoolandhismoney.com/ over 6 years in the making and I've had on Pre-order for over 3 years - here's hoping he makes his October release date :rolleyes:

Am I the only one getting a Twin Peaks vibe off all this? FBI agent has to go to a small town with an odd mystery. Talks into a tape recorded very often. Local diner. Obsession with gum (I would link this to Coopers obsession with coffee).

Anyone else notice this? any more similarities?

Angel Gamer's thread reminded me of another TV show that was on years ago called Push, Nevada. If you can look past the involvement of Ben Affleck, it was cool in that each episode, there was a code word to find, with clues hidden throughout. There was also the opportunity to win a cash prize. Unfortunately, it was canceled after a few episodes, so the remaining clues were all given at once during a football game commercial break.

Did anyone here get involved with Perplex City? It was a cool Alternate Reality Game played partly online and partly via puzzle trading cards. They were brilliant - some of the puzzle cards involved smell, some involved turning images into sound files, some involved decrypting ciphers, some used blacklight and some were even printed with heat-reactive ink. The arg finished years ago, but I still need to complete my collection...

There's a word that's pluralised by adding an A to the start. What is it?

I think it's "yes" and "ayes".

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you about my incredible magical power. I can throw a ping pong ball so that it travels a short distance, comes to a complete stop, and then reverses its direction and returns to my hand. I don't bounce it against anything, or alter the ball in any way. How do I do it?

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you about my incredible magical power. I can throw a ping pong ball so that it travels a short distance, comes to a complete stop, and then reverses its direction and returns to my hand. I don't bounce it against anything, or alter the ball in any way. How do I do it?

Okay, how about this: a while back I worked on a construction site where there was a lot of employee theft. A friend of mine was implicated, and the security guards were told to keep an extra close eye on him. Every night he'd pass through the security checks with a wheelbarrow filled with discarded electrical wires, offcuts of scrap lumber and chunks of concrete. The guards checked the contents every day, but they never found anything of value. What was my friend stealing?

Okay, how about this: a while back I worked on a construction site where there was a lot of employee theft. A friend of mine was implicated, and the security guards were told to keep an extra close eye on him. Every night he'd pass through the security checks with a wheelbarrow filled with discarded electrical wires, offcuts of scrap lumber and chunks of concrete. The guards checked the contents every day, but they never found anything of value. What was my friend stealing?

A man makes a bet with his blind friend. He says that he is going to give the blind man a glass with ice cubes in it. The bet is that the other man will leave the room and will try to sneak back into the room to fill his glass with ginger ale. If the blind man hears the slightest noise inside the room, he will send the other man back out into the hall. If the blind man can hold off his friend for an hour, then he will win the bet. If his friend can slip the blind man the ginger ale, he will win.

An hour passes and the clock strikes an hour. the blind man raises his glass and is surprised to find that after an hour of hearing nothing, his glass is somehow filled with ginger ale. His friend tells him to pay up, but the blind man refuses. "I know you cheated, and I know how," said the blind man.

A man makes a bet with his blind friend. He says that he is going to give the blind man a glass with ice cubes in it. The bet is that the other man will leave the room and will try to sneak back into the room to fill his glass with ginger ale. If the blind man hears the slightest noise inside the room, he will send the other man back out into the hall. If the blind man can hold off his friend for an hour, then he will win the bet. If his friend can slip the blind man the ginger ale, he will win.

An hour passes and the clock strikes an hour. the blind man raises his glass and is surprised to find that after an hour of hearing nothing, his glass is somehow filled with ginger ale. His friend tells him to pay up, but the blind man refuses. "I know you cheated, and I know how," said the blind man.